Over the years, jewelry has been kept in a variety of containers as, for example, well-known jewelry boxes. Most such containers have a rigid exterior shell with a hinged lid and may vary in bulk substantially. In general, they cannot be considered to be readily portable as in a purse or a pocket due to their bulk and/or the inconvenience posed by their rigid shell construction.
In addition, while such jewelry boxes may fulfill functions of displaying jewelry while on sale, holding jewelry while not in use, etc., their capabilities are generally limited to such uses and the same are not particularly flexible in terms of being easily usable in other settings.
Non-rigid, fabric jewelry holders have been devised, generally for the purpose of providing a container for receipt of jewelry during traveling or the like. For example, one such jewelry holder is formed out of a flexible fabric construction of about 5 by 8 inches and is divided into two zippered pouches. Jewelry may be placed in the pouches and the assemblage folded into thirds. A tie is provided for holding the assemblage in such a configuration so that it may be easily disposed in a purse, suitcase or the like. In some instances, the basic rectangle of material may be provided with an elongated finger on which rings may be received.
One difficulty with this construction is the fact that a person wishing to retrieve jewelry must search through the pouches to find the parts thereof, a process which may be difficult where small jewelry items are concerned. Another difficulty arises in the fact that when assembled as mentioned, the structure is open-ended at both ends and any jewelry not firmly secured in place may fall out of the assemblage.
Particular difficulty arises in the case of small jewelry of multiple part construction such as earrings for pierced ears. As is well-known, such earrings include a post which extends through the pierced ear and terminates on one end with a decorative portion or the like. A retainer or backing is slipped on the post from the other end for the purpose of retaining the earring on the pierced ear.
The backings used in such earrings are quite small, typically having a length of less than 1/4" and top to bottom and width dimensions of 1/8" or less. When the backings become disassociated from the posts during storage of the earring, they are frequently difficult to find even if such dissociation occurs in a purse or jewelry holder. And, of course, once a backing cannot be found, the earring cannot be worn until the backing is replaced.
Not infrequently, wearers of earrings for pierced ears find the need to temporarily remove the earring as, for example, when performing an athletic endeavor or the like. Since such events typically occur in a setting remote from the wearer's residence, frequently there will be no convenient place to store the removed earring in such a way that the components thereof are easily retrievable and will not become lost. While flexible jewelry holders of the type mentioned above may be of some assistance on such an occasion, their drawbacks make it clear that they are not a complete solution to the problem.